Her lip gloss is poppin'

This picture is from a birthday card sent by my friend Lil' Lori a couple years ago. It's been on my bulletin board since day one because it makes me laugh every time I look at it. It got new life today because a friend of mine's daughter got a little crazy with the lip gloss (as Sarah is prone to do) and I had to scan it for her.

On a completely unrelated note - Jacob and Sarah's conferences were today. Sarah's was great and it was no surprise she's the teacher's little helper. School was made for her and vice versa. Jacob has all A's and one B and we couldn't be prouder. He's improved so much in the last year, and he's really staying on top of the new challenges.

One more day til Girls Trip to Round Top. More on that later...I've got too much to do around here before I leave!

Rock on!

The tennis gods are frowning...

Last Wednesday's clinics were rained out. Now Monday FINALLY rolls around and we play for 27 minutes before the rain comes. That's almost worse than not going at all. Grrrr...

You know you're related when...

you pick up your cousin from the airport, not having seen her in three+ years, and you're both wearing tennis shoes, capri jeans, a fleece pullover and hoop earrings! Kim arrived Thursday and we had lunch at La Margarita in Market Square before the rest of her girlfriends arrived.

I was able to go down to the Riverwalk last night and have a terrific dinner with them at Paesano's and then we went dancing at Acapulco Joe's (which used to be Polly Esther's, I believe). I got to talk to a young guy who was finishing his degree in mechanical engineering at UTSA, out partying with his not-so-much-older boss, and who was surprised to hear all of us were pushing 40 and that we had 16 kids between the five of us. hahaha! That was priceless.

A Beautiful Thing

Isn't it? So pretty. And tasty, too!



Mark and I had dinner at La Fogata on Saturday night. While we were waiting for our table, we saw Michael Anthony - the ex-drummer from Van Halen - now playing with Sammy Hagar in a band called Chickenfoot. Of course, I didn't recognize him, but Mark did. Guess aging rock stars like authentic Mexican too.

I could have used a couple of these Tuesday afternoon. I was stressed out about the schedule for the week, concerned about a couple things I was adding to Wednesday, looking at Wednesday on my calendar made me think it WAS Wednesday so I loaded all the kids up and took them to Faith Formation classes a day early.

Actual classes were yesterday and they went well. The plan was to play on the playground for an hour while we waited but the rain forced us back into the van where Lucas spent the time pushing every possible combination of buttons on the dashboard.

Mark left for Oktoberfest this morning with the Des Moines crew. Cousin Kim arrives in a few hours. Today it's supposed to be raining and 70 degrees, which is probably not the vacation she was hoping for. However, the weather should be much nicer and warmer over the weekend.

After school today we have dance and tutoring, then will wait to see which teacher from Hardy Oak delivers our pizza dinner. It's a school fundraiser and we're hoping to at least recognize the teacher this year!

Friday calendar: flu shots. Yippee.

Naughty Boy (continued)

In honor of the egg fiasco, we put Lucas in his Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Get In Trouble Too! shirt. Here he is annoyed with me for trying to get a picture.



And now he is mad! "Lemme go! I wanna play the Wii!"

Naughty Boy

I heard Lucas in the fridge the other day. Told him to get out..close the door. I figured he was trying to get an apple which he does pretty regularly. Then I found this.



Why yes, that is raw egg ON MY CARPET. On the side of the red chair. And a trail from the fridge to this spot in the living room.

Later that day, I took him and Ethan to Jacob's school for a while to work on a project. Within 30 minutes, he had tipped over a mannequin, tipped over a sign directing visitors to the office and broke off a piece of plastic, and pounded on the library windows.

Never again...without the stroller!

Swimming Lessons

Jacob, Sarah and Ethan are taking swim lessons from a new coach named Taylor. She's super cute, young and Jacob thinks she looks like Gabriella from HSM (the utmost compliment!). Ethan goes by himself and then Jacob and Sarah have their lesson together. Our last lesson was after the pool had closed for the summer so there were lots of leaves and other floating things in the pool but it didn't bother the kids too much. While Ethan was in his lesson, Jacob jumped off the diving board.



And after much prodding, encouragement and reassurance, so did Sarah! We were very proud of her bravery!

Sarah's Birthday Party

Sarah's 6th birthday party was Saturday night. It was the first sleepover for many of the girls and they handled it great. Sure, there was a little bit of drama, crying, screaming and minor injuries, but mostly it was a bunch of giggly girls having a very good time!

Cake Barbie! That's what she wanted...



Her hair kind of reminds me of Connie's hair after my wedding reception when she took out all the bobby pins! haha!



Coloring Barbie pictures until everyone arrived.



Camryn, Sarah, Kylie and Gwen.



Lexie, Angelina and Chiara making beaded bracelets.

Sarah's Birthday Party (continued)

Camryn and Sarah making bracelets.




Sarah and Grace coloring.



Blowing out the candles. I love this picture because of the faces of all the girls in the background. They are so happy and excited! It makes me laugh.



I wasn't sure where everyone would want to sleep. Upstairs in beds, spread out on the floor, downstairs after the movie... ended up being upstairs. The kids spent much of the late night making forts out of couch cushions and extra blankets. This was only the beginning! There were pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, cushions, toys and kids covering every inch of the floor.



Lights out 11:00 p.m. Sarah, Gwen and Kylie all slept in Sarah's bed. Camryn was on the trundle underneath. I was afraid one of them would fall out but nobody did!



I think they were all sleeping by 11:25. Nobody woke up asking to go home! They all made it and woke up around 7-something. I don't have any more pictures from this morning but they devoured five dozen mini blueberry muffins before Mark even got the pancakes started so that took care of breakfast. Everyone was picked up by 10:15 a.m. and the lost and found items are pretty minimal! We got Jacob back from his sleepover (first one for him too and he made it!) at 10:30 and then I took a long nap with Lucas! And the best part? The cleaning ladies come tomorrow! Hooray!

Everything is amazing and nobody is happy...

I found this clip on a friend's facebook page and it made me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

www.vimeo.com/4785549

Best Buy Theory

You know how you go into Target for one thing and you easily drop $50 on a bunch of other stuff? That is some serious marketing mojo they have going on there. And I think Best Buy has something similar. My theory is that Best Buy has a radar system that detects when a man is apart from his significant other. This triggers Best Buy's homing signal, thus drawing the man into the store. What evidence do I have to support this theory?



Whenever I leave my husband alone with the children...whether it's for the weekend or just an hour or two, he takes them to Best Buy! Photo proof. See also Austin trip weekend photos. Hmmm.

What'd you get for your birthday?

Sarah got an asthma attack! She came home from school yesterday and laid down on the couch. She looked so tired, I had her go lay down in my bed. Twenty minutes later, I went to check on her and she was practically panting - not breathing normally at all. So we went to urgent care where she received a breathing treatment and an oral steroid, a popsicle and two treasure box gifts.

She's much better today but because she had a fever during the attack, she cannot go to school until tomorrow. Her major concern is that she'll miss art class!

She'll have to do breathing treatments 2x day for a while and start up singulair for allergies. Eventually we'll have to take her to an allergist to try and determine what triggers her attacks. She hasn't had one in almost three years and we thought she had grown out of it. Guess not.

Sarah's Birthday

Sarah turned six on Sunday. We celebrated by going to Applebee's (I know I should be thankful for her temporarily inexpensive tastes) and getting a cake from Target. Her hat is from school on Friday.



We'll celebrate with all her little friends on Saturday night with a party at the house. Pizza/cake/manicures/movie/popcorn/sleepover/pancakes! Yes, I said sleepover. We're hoping it will be drama-free. It will be a first for a lot of these girls so we're expecting some late-night take home trips. But maybe they'll do better since the will all be here together. It could go either way. I'll report back Sunday!

Julie's Birthday

Sarah's friend Julie turns five today. She had her party Saturday at an art studio. The kids got to paint purses or t-shirts, make treasure boxes and paint other wooden crafts like bracelets, surfboards and snakes.

Birthday girl Julie.


Ethan making his shirt. There ended up being some monsterous paint blobs on there. I'm not sure if they will ever dry!



Sarah painting her purse.



Jacob's Yoda t-shirt. He drew it himself! (I only helped with the paint.) The art studio even has a drawing class dedicated to Star Wars! The lady who runs the studio was very knowledgable about what color Yoda's robe should be. Brown for every day and white for ceremonies!

Fast Week

Where did this week go?

The kids are still doing great at school. No drama. No illness. Knocking on wood right now. Sarah's teacher says she's always very helpful. The other day Sarah told me she walked two different kids to the nurse's office! This freaked me out because if someone is sick I don't want Sarah to be near them - but she said it was because the two kids ran into each other. Phew!

The big slideshow I was working on was a bust. The first showing had technical problems but luckily a small audience. The second showing went flawlessly but had NO audience. I can only hope the kids get to see it at school sometime because I spent TWO WEEKS OF MY SUMMER WORKING ON THE STUPID THING!!!

Thursday was also eventful in that the little boys got haircuts.




And then later in the afternoon, my flip flop got caught on the edge of a rug and I turned my ankle. It didn't hurt or seem like a big deal at the time but by this morning I had to crawl to the bathroom because I couldn't put any weight on it. And it turned out not to be my ankle, but one of the bones on the top of my foot. So, I'm practicing RICE (Rest Ice Compression & Elevation) and remembering the many nights after basketball that Jodi and I would be in the trainer's office with dixie cup ice cubes on our ankles - or worse - our entire foot submerged in the bucket of ice water. Brrrrr.

This morning was the preschool open house. I think Lucas is more excited than Ethan. He walked right in, gave his teacher a hug and went to the train table. Ethan hid in the hallway until I told him his Birthday Buddy Matthew was already in there! Then he was fine.

Birthday party this weekend, then first swim lesson with new instructor on Monday. And hopefully, my foot will be alright for tennis Monday night. Coach is at NYC/US Open right now and I am extremely jealous.

Congrats to Sara and Sean (and big sisters Maureen and Bridget) on the arrival of Delaney Jill...seems to be a lot of girl babies this fall!